The Reaffirmation of Federalism as a Viable Limitation Upon the Commerce Power

AS THE

Constitution was being formulated, Article I, Section 8, clause 3, giving Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes," was added because of the Framers' grave concern with the erection of trade barriers between the states, a problem which had inhibited interstate trade under the old Articles of Confederation. The federal government's regulation of commerce was meant to provide substantial equality of access to a free national market, avoiding what has been unhappily referred to as "the intolerable experience of the economic Balkanization of America